The Temptations and the Rise of Authoritarianism in America
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The Temptations and the Rise of Authoritarianism in America
Herb Montgomery; March 1, 2025
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Our reading this week is from the three temptations in the gospel of Luke:
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written:
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
(Luke 4:1-13)
The current political environment in the U.S. has given us a different lens to read Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness through as this text, once again, rolls by in the lectionary. For readers today who have a difficult time with this story’s language and characters (such as a devil), remember that this story was written for people in that culture, not ours. This year, I would like you to consider not the fantastic nature of the story but the idea that this story, written in that fantastic flavor, was a conspicuously veiled critique of the political, economic, social, and even religious system of the society that the audience of Luke’s gospel lived in. It was written for those who had the understanding to perceive it.
The very first words Luke’s “devil” speaks to Jesus was to question: “If you are the Son of God…” Remember, “son of God” was one of the titles attributed to Caesar. Over and over again, Luke contrasts Jesus and his “kingdom” with Caesar and the Roman Empire. They are alternative ways of doing life collectively together as human beings. So the very first question this story is asking is on what grounds does Jesus and his way of doing life replace Rome and its way of doing life. In other words, “If you, Jesus, are the son of God instead of Caesar, then . . .”
And that leads us to Jesus’ very first temptation—turning stones to bread. Bread was one of Rome’s central promises to its citizenry. By the time the gospels were written, Rome’s grain dole was well established. Each citizen was assured a measure of grain on a regular basis, and this was one of the ways Rome sought to ensure riots and rebellion did not break out throughout its territories (see Bread and circuses). Those who controlled the bread ultimately controlled the people, and one way to motivate clients of Rome to cooperate was that these regional rulers could turn their stony, arid, less than suitable agricultural lands (i.e. stones) into bread by being loyal to Rome and thus receiving Rome’s grain dole. Recognizing Caesar as the son of God allowed many client rulers to turn stones into bread on a regular schedule.
This story is critiquing the way that the Temple State with its rulers and priesthood had become complicit with the Roman Empire. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 to remind Luke’s listeners of the words of the Torah. in the tradition of Jewish renewal, he is calling them back to fidelity to the Torah’s teachings. Here is the passage referenced in the first temptation from Deuteronomy.
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:3)
The second temptation is a bit more obvious. What Rome promised each of its client rulers was authority and power over their region. They literally could have said to each of their clients, “I will give you authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” If rulers of the regions that Rome conquered embraced the Roman religion of Caesar worship and swore fidelity to the Roman Empire, then authority and splendor would be theirs. In response to the way the Temple State with its golden Roman Eagle and the priest and rulers had become complicit with Rome, Jesus in the story quotes Deuteronomy again, this time chapter 6:
Worship the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you. (Deuteronomy 6:13-14)
In Luke’s third temptation (the second temptation in Matthew’s gospel), Jesus is taken up to the highest point of the Temple. Jerusalem and the Temple should not be interpreted here in merely religious terms. Think of Jerusalem as the capital of the region of Judea and the temple as the capital building. The temple was the standing symbol of the Jewish Temple state and the center out of which the Jewish Temple state operated. What Rome promised the priest, scribes, Sanhedrin, and wealthy elites of Rome was protection “lest they dash their feet upon the stone” of Rome and lose their local power and wealth. This protection was conditional upon them using the Temple State to incorporate Roman allegiance into their systems of politics, economics, and religion. (The priesthood, remember, was taken over by Roman authority, and Caesar selected the priests.). It waste temple’s complicity with Rome that both Jesus and John the Baptist critiqued: it transformed the Temple and Temple State into a channel for local Roman oppression of the economically marginalized.
In response, Jesus quotes this final time from Deuteronomy (chapter 6):
Worship the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah. (Deuteronomy 6:13-16)
What is this testing at Massah that Luke’s gospel asked its listeners to remember? It’s found in Exodus 17:
The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The LORD answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” (Exodus 17:1-7)
Had those in control of society in Jesus’ time returned to Egypt (now a metaphor for the Roman Empire) and the security it promised rather than trusting in the faithfulness of the God of the Torah by practicing the economic justice toward the marginalized and vulnerable found in the Pentateuch?
Although the Christian religion has now evolved far away from those early roots, the Jesus movement began as a Jewish renewal movement calling its adherents away from complicity with Roman oppression and exploitation and back to fidelity to the economic justice teachings in the Torah.
What does all of this mean for us today?
Today we are again witnessing the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, and the weakening of and some feel the fall of democracy in our own society. It is time for Jesus followers of all types to return to the roots of saying no to a politics of exclusion, exploitation, and enrichment of the elites at the expense of the masses. What we have instead is how Egypt operated. It was also how Rome operated. It is not how Jesus envisioned God’s just future.
God’s just future will require willingness for Christians who bear responsibility for the mess we find ourselves in to embrace deep repentance. I also pray we become reacquainted with the Jesus of the gospels as encouragement to Christians who wisely saw the direction our society was headed and did all they could within their spheres of influence to divert our society’s course. Regardless, of where you find yourself in your own journey of endeavoring to follow Jesus, may Luke’s story of Jesus’ temptations be a source of encouragement, conviction, and, to those for whom it applies, repentance as we enter this years Lenten season.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How are you being called to repent this lenten season and resist the tempations of Empire in your own life? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
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Season 3, Episode 5: Luke 4.1-13. Lectionary C, Lent 1
Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend in the context of love, inclusion, and social justice. Our hope is that our talking will be “just” talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week we’ll be inspired to do more than just talking.
If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out at:
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 2 Episode 10: The Temptations and the Rise of Authoritarianism in America
Luke 4:1-13
The current political environment in the U.S. has given us a different lens to read Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness through as this text, once again, rolls by in the lectionary. Presently we are witnessing the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, and the weakening of and some feel the fall of democracy in our own society. The politics of the gospel call us to say no to a politics of exclusion, exploitation, and enrichment of the elites at the expense of the masses. The temptations story calls for a willingness from Christians who bear responsibility for the mess we find ourselves in to embrace deep repentance and to become reacquainted with the Jesus of the gospels. These stories also serve as encouragement to Christians who wisely saw the direction our society was headed and did all they could within their spheres of influence to divert our society’s course. Regardless, of where we find ourselves presently, the stories of the temptations are a source of encouragement, conviction, and, to those for whom it applies, repentance as we enter this year’s Lenten season.
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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